Q. Tell us about your business.
We started out in 2004. The Water’s Edge at Bellevue project was a side project while I was doing my master’s at the University of Cincinnati. I came up with a concept for them, and they loved it. It was the project that started our company. I had worked for a larger firm for four to five years before, doing more retail design. My background is in architecture.
We focused more on architecture when we first started the firm. But since 2010, we’ve started focusing on projects that allow us to do the construction side. If we had it in-house, we could do it right. We put a heavy focus on high-end residential. We do a lot on the remodeling side. Our firm has been recognized by Houzz several times.
Q. What’s the process like?
We can go from design concept all the way through completion. We can do a Realtor walkthrough with clients trying to buy a house. We’ll say what we can do with the house and try to come up with some quick high-level numbers of what it’s going to take and what they can do with it.
Probably 75% of our renovations are people living in the house while we’re under construction. We have some proprietary things we’ve learned over 15 years, like how to make that environment work. We’ve come up with systems that allow them to feel more at ease. Everyone forgets about the psychological part of a renovation. We try to work on that upfront to allow people to live their lives as comfortably as possible while it’s happening.
Q. What sets you apart?
We don’t jump on the trends with a lot of our design. We try to keep classic. Color trends or shiplap or barn doors and all
that — we never really subscribed to that because I think it’s going to date itself very fast. We’ve been lucky that we get referrals from people that like the work we’ve done. We’re going down our own path. We’ve created our own style.
We have a design team. We are full-custom and full-design. It’s all in-house for us. Our team designs every room from the ground up with that client. We’re always trying to find the newest and most unique design pieces out there. We focus on the client and what their needs are. We attend every meeting and try to share our knowledge of what we’ve learned over the years.
I love Hyde Park old houses. In 2015, we started going into LEED and green building. It allows us to get into these old houses and neighborhoods and learn the proportions, scale and classic way those houses were built. It allows us to put that knowledge into our designs to make them feel like they fit the environment. You want it to feel like it belongs on that street or in that neighborhood that has been there for decades.
Zobrist Design Group is located at 2728 Madison Rd., Cincinnati, Ohio 45209. Visit zobristdesign.com for more information.